Decline Of The Middle Class Analysis

After the post-war, the government set out to create jobs and rid communism. America was heading towards a capitalist society. At the time, the economy was booming and consumerism gave Americans a life of prosperity and leisure. Americans were able to purchase products only the wealthy could afford. Consumerism de-emphasized class difference and this created the middle class and the beginning of consumerism. The middle class is an important factor to the growth of the economy after the post war. However, the middle class is now fading away and the economy is starting to fall with it.

During the past couple of decades, the decline in the middle class has been associated to the political agenda of the Republican Party. By ending governmental subsidies and other programs created to build the middle class, has ultimately ceased the growth. However, realizing the importance of the middle class to our fragile economic platform, the Democratic and Independent political parties are desperately trying to create and revamp the middle class

In Edward McClelland’s essay “RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013,” McClelland discusses to his audience that the middle class is slowly vanishing and soon enough we will only be left with the rich and the poor. Throughout the essay, McClelland uses various examples to demonstrate how the middle class will no longer exist. McClelland talks about how education is vital for pursuing a job at a reasonable pay that a person can live off of. Before, people were able to leave high school and go straight into a job with a pay that could support them. Nowadays, the same jobs that were supporting people before require a lot more education and still aren’t giving enough money that will allow them to live comfortably. Even though there are still jobs people can thrive at that will make more money without a serious education , the middle class is struggling to make it economically, because it is harder to find a job without education and financially it’s harder to make ends meet.

The Jacksonian Period, or the era of the “common man,” greatly satisfied its name. Even though President Jackson was not a common man himself, he was a great supporter of the middle class. He dramatically altered the country’s banking system, by replacing wealthy elites with middle class white men. Even after his presidency, a new political party, the Whigs, continued to enact his ideas and political reforms to benefit the middle class.

So, in Warren’s The Vanishing Middle Class, her question initially was, “What is the middle class?” Which laid out her platform for her main stance: to expose the true issues of the middle class and why they’re suffering. For example, she counters the idea that they’re spending too much money on consumer goods by observing that “fixed” and necessary goods are up while their wages aren’t keeping a pace. With that being said, she makes a suitable point that the cost of living in America for the middle class is rising at a higher rate than the families can handle. In recent studies, like the ones she’s cited using figures and diagrams, have shed light among the profound changes within the incomes of these middle-class families and how they’ve been kept in the shadows. For instance, she addresses the issue of savings and debt in our nation, by providing statistical information based on families over a thirty-year time period to show the dramatic change generation after generation. Warren also emphasizes that people are quick to blame middle-class’ short comings in wages on overconsumption (especially those of luxurious goods), however the facts, stats and graphs don’t match up with that, but that of fixed costs, the things you can’t avoid (housing and childcare) have gone up so the middle-class can’t be to blame for that. Finally, she discusses the impact taxes had on two-income families by emphasizing the ups and downs of family’s incomes over the past generation. Ultimately, what is at stake here is, if the majority of the middle class doesn’t get some form of recognition and attention needed soon, they’re going to be whipped off the spectrum of today’s society.

In 1978, the economy started suffering in the US, because the middle class was getting weaker, and inequality started increasing. According to Reich, the middle class is directly associated with the economy, because 70 percent of the economy is summoned up of consumer spending. The middle class is the foundation of consumer spending. In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, wages

In Robert Reich documentary “Inequality for All” he makes a compelling discussion about the serious crises that the United States faces due the widening economic gap. He looks to raise awareness of the U.S. economic gap between the rich and poor. According to Reich the widening divide in America is real and growing. Income levels at the middle and labor class is stagnant and are at it’s lowest levels compared to upper class incomes since the beginning of WWII and is growing wider each year. Reich suggests that the economy runs more smoothly when the middle class has jobs with fair wages, when unions are strong, and when middle class workers have some extra money to spend if possible when the government uses the tax policy properly and when it raises the minimum wage regularly to control the income gap between labor and management. In other words Reich argues that economically healthy middle and labor class equality is the foundation of a thriving economy and is necessary to maintaining a sound national infrastructure and educational system within

Edward McClelland is a journalist, as well as the author of several other books. Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President (2010), was the latest published, in addition to the several articles that appear in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and online sites such as, www.alternet.org. McClelland’s article, RIP, the Middle Class was first published on September 20, 2013, in Salon, an online news site. Having grown up in the midst of 1946-2013, Edward McClelland easily relates to that era. A time, when finding a well-paying job just out of high school was easily done. A time, when the Middle Class was still in existence.

In today’s democratic society, a strong labor movement has a major impact on the middle class. The union allows the middle class to have a strong voice in both the market and in democracy, but when the union is weak it has a negative effect on the middle class: workers can’t be ensured a fair pay, they don’t receive the training they need to actually make it to the middle class, and don’t get included into the corporate discussion and decision-making processes. The labor movement can have a huge, positive impact on the middle class. Over the years, the percentage of union workers has steadily declined, mainly because private-sector workers cannot freely exercise their right to join a union or not. With the number of union workers continually

The article “Evanston representatives, University employees join hundreds marching for union rights, higher wage” by Kristina Karisch, published in The Daily Northwestern relates directly to our current studies, in what happened in the past and now. Even today, just like before workers in Unions protest for higher wages and the right to unionize. Today, just like in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s there exists a wage disparity that is ever increasing, America is richer than ever, yet only 1% are benefiting from this ostensible prosperity, with the gap between the rich and poor ever increasing, and the middle class slowly slipping away. This income inequality stems from the fact that while the value of the dollar changes due to inflation, they

In pondering the question of inequality in the United States rising or falling; it must first be asked how would it be decided or what is considered equality? However, before answering these questions I will address two articles that present a difference in opinion on the subject of the middle class surviing or dying out.

My predictions were way off from the truth. I predicted that the middle class had 60% of the United States wealth and 60%of the world's wealth. It turned out that the to 10% had the largest portion of the US and world's wealth. This actually shocked me because I thought there was going to be enough people in the middle class that the middle classes wealth would be way more then the upper class. This is because I didn't think the upper classes wealth could be enough for the amount of people in the middle class. I think my prediction was so far off because the upper class had way more money than I expected.

This article was written to inform about the struggle that many middle class earners are going through. According to the author this problem is due to globalization. The purpose of the article is to inform the reader about how middle class earners are losing their jobs and the potential problems because of this occurrence. The author wrote this article with the intent to inform people about how jobs of which the middle class benefit from are being sent to other counties as the jobs cost less to manufacture overseas. The author does seem to also persuade its readers by writing about the TPP and how it’s a big problem for the economy. The author seems to want to make the reader feel sympathy for the man who lost his job due to globalization,

Monopoly, a game that almost every child grows up playing and during the game, one kid usually ends up yelling, “That’s not fair!” We all grow up thinking that it is ‘just a game’ but little did I realize until playing it 15 years later that the concept behind this game relates to our rules in society. Before starting this experiment, my social stratification was chosen for me and specific rules came along with it. I was placed in middle class, I was forbidden to buy any utilities or transportation, which I did not agree with, and although I had better privileges than the working and lower class, the upper class obtained all of the power.

I believe that all three of the friends that I interviewed belong to either the middle-class or upper-middle-class social groups. My friends Ben and James are very similar to me in terms of their development and the type of individuals that they grew out to be today, meanwhile, my friend Jack differs slightly. Ben and James, although they failed to move around as much as I did during their childhoods, participated in organized activities similar to mine. Team sports were an integral part of our lives and the lessons we learned from them have been deeply involved with our everyday decision making. As Lareau mentions, middle-class families often heavily involved their children in adult-organized activities (Lareau, 761). I believe this explains why both James and Ben always feel a tide of confidence and have developed the ability to successfully interact with authoritative figures and individuals. Meanwhile, my friend Jack has not been able to do so. Jack grew up in an extremely wealthy family with a dad who holds a high position in a Fortune 500 company. Essentially, everything he has asked for has been given to him without question. His parents never pushed him to partake in any after school activities and as as result I believe this has detrimentally affected his ability to converse with authoritative figures. He never learned the skills of being respondent to a coach/instructor nor did he have the ability to play alongside teammates and peers. From our interview, he seemed